1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular seat air-conditioning system which blows air from seats.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, this type of vehicular seat air-conditioning system was described in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2008-168776. In this prior art, a blower is attached to a bottom surface of a seat, air blown from the blower flows through an air passage provided inside the seat, and the air is blown from a vent provided at the seat top to the passenger.
In the blower, air-conditioned air (cool air) which is supplied from an in-door air-conditioning unit of a vehicular air-conditioning unit (main air-conditioning system for air-conditioning of the cabin space) is introduced. Due to this, the air-conditioned air (cool air) which is supplied from the in-door air-conditioning unit of the vehicular air-conditioning unit can be sent to the vehicular seat air-conditioning system, so it is possible to quickly make the driver or passenger comfortable.
Further, this prior art is a non-connection type where a floor duct which is connected to the blowing side of the in-door air-conditioning unit of the vehicular air-conditioning unit and a slide duct which is connected to the intake side of the blower of the vehicular seat air-conditioning system are not connected.
The floor duct is arranged along the cabin floor. Its downstream side end forms a vent which blows out air-conditioned air (cool air). The slide duct is fastened to a seat rail used for adjustment of the position of the seat in the longitudinal direction. The upstream side end forms an air collection port for collecting air-conditioned air (cool air) which was blown out from the floor duct.
The vent of the floor duct opens facing the vehicle rear side. The air collection port of the slide duct opens facing the vehicle front side and is arranged separated from the vent of the floor duct at the vehicle rear side. Further, the air collection port of the slide duct is designed to be able to slide in the vehicle longitudinal direction along with the seat when adjusting the position of the seat in the longitudinal direction.
Due to this, it is possible to supply air-conditioned air (cool air) which is supplied from the in-door air-conditioning unit of the vehicular air-conditioning unit to the vehicular seat air-conditioning system, so it is possible to quickly make the driver or passenger comfortable. Further, the floor duct and the slide duct are not connected, so even if adjusting the position of the seat in the longitudinal direction, it is possible to adjust the position of the seat in the longitudinal direction well without interference between the floor duct and slide duct.
However, according to the above prior art, the air collection port of the slide duct is arranged away from the vent of the floor duct, so before the air-conditioned air (cool air) which is blown out from the vent of the floor duct reaches the air collection port of the slide duct, cabin air (warm air) is entrained. For this reason, the air-conditioned air (cool air) which is sucked into the air collection port of the slide duct ends up rising in temperature and the heat loss becomes greater.
Further, if changing the slide position of the vehicular seat in the vehicle longitudinal direction, the distance from the vent of the floor duct to the air collection port of the slide duct ends up changing, so the temperature of the air-conditioned air (cool air) which is supplied to the vehicular seat air-conditioning system ends up varying and the air-conditioning ability of the vehicular seat air-conditioning system ends up fluctuating.